N. Y. CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 



GOOD WOKDS FROM THE PRESIDE])?^'' '"'"^ 
A PROCLAMATION. V>rvpr^, 

Wheeeas tlie Senate of the United States, devoutly recog- 
nizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty 
God in all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, 
requested the President to designate and set apart a day for 
national prayer and humihation : 

And whereas it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to 
own their dependence upon the overruUng power of God, to 
confess their sins and transgi-essions in humble sorrow, yet 
with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy 
and pardon ; and to recognize the sublime truths announced in 
the holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those na- 
tions only are blessed whose God is the Lord : 

And inasmuch as we know that by His divine law nations, 
Hke individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements 
in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of 
civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punish- 
ment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the need- 
ful end of our national reformation as a whole people ? "We 
have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. 
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and pros- 
perity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and pov/er, as no 
other nation has ever gi'o-«ai. But we have forgotten God. 
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in 
peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us"; and 
we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, 
that aU these blessings were produced by some superior wis- 
dom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken suc- 
cess, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of 
redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God 
that made us : 

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended 
Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency 
and forgiveness. 

Now therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully 
concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proc- 
lamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of 



NEW YORK CHEISTIAN COMMISSION. 






April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. 
And I do liereby request all the people to abstain on that day 
from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their sev- 
eral places of public worship and their respective homes, in 
keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble 
discharge of the rehgious duties proper to that solemn occasion. 

All tliis being done in sincerity and truth, let us rest hum- 
bly in the hope, authorized by the Divine teachings, that the 
united cry of the nation wiU be heard on high, and answered 
with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, 
and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country 
to its former happy condition of unity and peace. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, 

in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 

[l. s.] dred and sixty-three, and of the independence of 

the United States the eighty-seventh. 

By the President, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

WILLIAM H. SEWAKD, Secretary of State. 

THE PRESIDENT'S SABBATH ORDER. 

Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 15, 1862. 
The President, Commander-in-chief of the army and navy, desires 
and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and 
men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and 
beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian sol- 
diers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a 
Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that 
Sunday l&bor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of 
strict necessity. The discipline and character of the National forces 
should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled by the prof- 
anation of the day or name of the Most High. " At this time of pub- 
lic distress," adopting the words of Washington in 1776, "men may 
find enough to do in the service of God and their country, without 
abandoning themselves to vice and immorality." The first general 
order issued by the Father of his country, after the Declaration of In- 
dependence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded 
and should ever be defended : " The General hopes and trusts that 
every officer and man will endeavor to lfv'e and act as becomes a 
Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his 
COUNTRY." ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

GEN. WASHINGTON'S GENERAL ORDER, AlKJUST 3, 1776. 

That the troops may have an opportunity of attending public 
worship, as well as to take some rest after the great fatigue they 
have gone through, the General in future excuses them from fatigue- 
duty on Sundays, except at the ship-yards or on special occasions, 



4 NEW YOEK CHKISTIAN COMMISSION. 

The Department will be gratified with any legitimate means to 
promote the welfare, present and future, of all who are in the service. 
I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

GIDEON WELLS. 
Mb. George H. Stuart. 

FROM REAR-ADMIRAL FOOTE. 

Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, 

Washington, Feb. 16, 1863. 
[Admiral — This Bureau has been charged with the duty of Etttend- 
ing to the requisitions of the Christian Commission of the army and 
navy, so far as the navy is concerned. It is the wish of the Depart- 
ment to have forwarded moral and religious works, with hospital 
delicacies, etc., to the different squadrons, in vessels bound to these 
squadrons. 

You will please, therefore, have the beneficent object of the Chris- 
tian Commission in view, and afford it every possible reasonable ac- 
commodation consistent with the public interest, and forward such 
articles as it wishes for the temporal and spiritual welfare of those 
engaged in the naval service. 

Please refer to the Bureau applications for passage, which must 
be made and indorsed by some one in connection with the association. 
The officers of the Society are gentlemen of the highest standing 
in New York. 

Respectfully, etc., 

A. H. FOOTE, Chief of Bureau. 
Rear- admiral Hiram Paulding, 

Commandant Navy Yard, New York. 

FROM THE SURGEON- GENERAL 

SuEG eon-general's Office, 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 22, 1862. 

Dear Sir— I have received your letter with much satisfaction. I 
shall always be ready to aid the United States Christian Commission 
in any way that may be in my power. 

Yours sincerely, 

W. A. HAMMOND. 
George H. Stuart, Esq. 

NEW YORK COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN 
COMMISSION. 

WILLIAM E. DODGE, Chairmaji. HEMAN DYER, 

FREDERICK G. FOSTER, Chairman Exec. Com. JOSEPH HOLDICH, 

JAMES M. BROWN, Treastoer, 59 WaU-st. MORRIS K. JESUP, 

RUSSELL S. COOK, Secretary, 5 Bible-house. THOMAS C. DOREMUS, 

JOHN T. JOHNSTON, JAMES C. HOLDEN, 

HENRY K. BULL, D. WILLIS JAMES, 

DAVID HOADLEY, SMITH SHELDON, 

JONATHAN STURGES, SALEM H. WALES, 

ARCHIBALD RUSSELL, JAMES W. BEEKMAN, 

NATHAN BISHOP, S. B. CALDWELL., 

DAVID TERRY, WALTER S. G^~ FFITH, 

L. B. WOODRUFF, STEPHEN CUlTER, 

OLIVER BRONSON, D. G. ELLIOTT. 

OFFICERS OF THE U. S. CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 

GEO. II. STUART, Chairman, 13 Bank-st. 
JOS. PATTERSON, Treas. , Western Bank. 
Ret. W. E. BOARDMAN, SecT, 13 Bankst. 




NEW YORK CHRISTIAN COMMI 

013 764 '090" 

until further orders. The General is sorry to be miormea uuu 
foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice 
hitherto little known in an American army, is growing into fashion. 
He hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor 
to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can 
have little hope of the blessing of heaven on our arms if we insult it 
by our impiety and folly. Added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, 
without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests 

and despises it. Sparks' writings of Washington, vol. 4, p. 28. 

THE PRESIDENT ON THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 

The following letter was read by Mr. Seci'etary Chase, Chairman, 
at the meeting of the United States Christian Commission, held in the 
hall of the House of Representatives on Washington's birthnight, 
1863, when addresses were made by Major-general Howard, U. S. A. ; 
Rear-admiral Foote, U. S. N., and others. 

. Executive Mansion, Washington, Feb. 22, 1863. 

Kev. Alexander Eeed : 

My dear Sir — Your note by which you, as General Superintendent 
of the United States Christian Commission, invite me to preside at a 
meeting to be held this day at the hall of the House of Representa- 
tives in this city, is received. 

While for reasons which I deem sufficient I must decline to pre- 
side, I cannot withhold my approval of the meeting and its worthy 
objects. Whatever shall be sincerely and in God's name be devised 
for the good of the soldiers and seamen in their hard spheres of duty, 
can scarcely fail to be blessed. And whatever shall tend to turn our 
thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prejudices, 
and jealousies incident to a great national trouble such as ours, and 
to fix them upon the vast and long enduring consequences, for wea^l 
and for woe, which are to result from the struggle, and especially to 
strengthen our reliance on the Supreme Being for the final triumph of 
the right, cannot but be well for us all. 

The birthday of Washington and the Christian Sabbath coinciding 
this year, and suggesting together the highest interest of this life and 
of that to come, is most propitious for" the meeting proposed. 

Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. 

MEMORANDUM FROM SECRETARY STANTON. 

War Department, Washington, Jan. 24, 1863. 
Bishop Janes is authorized to state that he has received assurance 
from the Secretary of War, that every facility consistent with the ex- 
igencies of the service will be aiForded to the Christian Commission, 
for the performance of their religious and benevolent purposes in the 
armies of the United States, and in the forts, garrisons, and camps, 
and military posts. 

FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 

Navy Department, Dec. 16, 1861. 
Sir — I have received your letter of fflie 11th instant, asking an 
expression of the Department as to the objects of the United States 
Christian Commission, to promote the welftire of the soldiers, sailors, 
marines, etc. 



